Board member Tom Williams on the port authority: 'We really need a full-on effort this year to get this thing properly funded.' / The Cincinnati Enquirer

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Everybody believes in the Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority’s mission.

The challenge is to make the economic development agency’s potential a reality, and it comes down to this question: Do we want a pop-gun approach to economic development, or do we want to use a cannon?

The port authority was reorganized three years ago to transform blighted neighborhoods into new developments that attract residents, businesses and create thousands of jobs to strengthen the city’s tax base.

Mayor John Cranley and councilman P.G. Sittenfeld recently told The Enquirer that, for now, they’re comfortable with funding the port on a project-by-project basis. The city has given the port authority $10 million over the past two years to redevelop Seymour Plaza in Roselawn and Swifton Commons in Bond Hill.

The port authority is appreciative. But ultimately, board members want a large, reliable stream of capital to create and execute strategic visions for neighborhoods under the agency’s purview.

The port authority is largely funded with public money, and city and county officials are rightly acting as stewards of taxpayer dollars.

The reality, though, is that redeveloping blighted areas is expensive. Since 2004, Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. says $717 million has been invested in redevelopment and new construction projects Downtown and in Over-the-Rhine.

The port authority has a broader footprint than 3CDC. And take an area like Queensgate, which it wants to transform into a manufacturing and logistics hub. The port authority says that will cost an estimated $250 million over the next decade by itself.

That’s why Tom Williams, who sits on both the port authority and 3CDC’s boards, said at a port authority meeting last week: “We really need a full-on effort this year to get this thing properly funded.”

Williams, who chairs the powerful Cincinnati Business Committee, is one of 10 port authority board members. Kroger, Dinsmore, Procter & Gamble, Duke Energy, GE Aviation and the Cincinnati Regional Business Committee are represented. Businessman Otto Budig is the chair.

The executives have a track record of thinking big in their own companies and delivering results. Presumably that’s why the city and county asked them to serve on the port authority board in the first place, and it’s certainly why they agreed to join. Managing $10 million projects and working with hand-to-mouth funding isn’t the best use of their time.

That said, the board is clearly working to reset relationships with the city following the collapse in November of Cincinnati’s parking deal that would have moved the port authority one step closer to securing a reliable funding stream. That created tension between some port authority officials and Cranley.

CEO Laura Brunner and board members say they’re committed this year to better communication with city and county officials, as well as regional organizations with economic development interests. Cranley, meanwhile, has made being accessible to the business community a top priority, and is keeping the lines of communication with the port authority open.

It’s been almost six years since the Go Cincinnati report first recommended turning the port authority into an economic development powerhouse. The pieces are now in place to make big thinking more than a bullet point on a report. But this moment in time won’t last forever.